Health privacy now in the eye of the spy

Marco Huesch, a researcher at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, searched for ''depression'', ''herpes'' and ''cancer'' on various health-related websites and observed that the data was being tracked.

''Confidentiality is threatened by the leakage of information to third parties'' through trackers on the websites themselves or on consumers' computers, he wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Should someone living with depression, herpes or cancer research his or her condition online, as an increasing number of patients are doing, these search terms might not remain private, he said. Disclosure of any conditions could result not only in embarrassment but also discrimination in the labour market, he added.

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The scientist used freeware privacy tools DoNotTrackMe and Ghostery to detect third party entities on the websites he browsed and commercial software called Charles to intercept any transmission of the information he generated to third parties.

Of what he called a ''convenience sample'' of 20 high-traffic sites, which include WebMD and Weight Watchers, all had at least one third-party entity, and six or seven on average, he said.

Thirteen out of 20 websites contained third-party elements that tracked user data, said Mr Huesch, highlighting the role of social media plug-ins, which appeared on five of those 13 sites.

Plug-ins such as the Facebook ''Like'' button ''allow tracking on websites even if the online user is not logged into social media'' and ''the user does not actually press the social button'', he said.

He warned that the risk of personal or professional embarrassment could ''reduce the willingness of some people to access health-related information online''.

Until regulations on information-gathering were enacted, he advised patients and physicians to use free privacy tools for online browsing, or to search through websites maintained by professional societies or government researchers.